Green opposition LMP submits package of questions on Paks upgrade to government

Budapest (MTI) – Green opposition LMP calls on the government to explain several aspects of the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant before “spending any penny on the project”, the party’s co-leader said on Saturday.

LMP has submitted a package of questions concerning the upgrade to the Prime Minister’s Office, Bernadett Szél told a press conference.

The party wants to know the exact breakdown of costs defined within the overall 4,000 billion forint (EUR 13bn) budget of the project, she said.

LMP also seeks to know why the government has classified the agreements on the implementation of the expansion project, she said, adding that it would also like to access agreements concluded by the government with an affiliate of the Rothschild Group in connection with the upgrade.

Further, LMP wants to know whether Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had travelled to Russia in January 2014 with a government decision in his pocket approving his signing of an agreement on the upgrade and whether Hungarian intelligence services had investigated beforehand the possibility of Russian attempts to influence Hungarian decision-makers on the project, she said.

Szél said the Hungarian people had the right to get clear answers from the government to the set of questions surrounding the project which would define their country’s future for the next several decades.

Hungary signed an agreement in January 2014 on the construction of two blocks at the Paks nuclear power plant by Russia’s Rosatom. Russia is lending Hungary 10 billion euros to cover 80 percent of the project’s costs.